With Robert F. Kennedy Jr. now lined up to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, it appears his Make America Healthy Again movement is poised for real power.
Its central mandate: Reverse the chronic disease epidemic, which is the leading cause of death in the U.S., and drives massive health care costs.
MAHA has set its sights on big food and big pharma, arguing that these industries use lobbying power to maximize profits at the expense of the country’s health. This message served as an animating force in the final stretch of the election, as Kennedy elevated concerns about ultra processed foods and poor nutrition, food additives, pesticides and toxic chemicals, and the harms of industrial agriculture, among other issues. He knit together an unlikely coalition — some from the left and some MAGA supporters — eager to take on the establishment.
“Bobby Kennedy and Trump have bonded over tying the core of MAGA – which is a distrust of institutions and getting corruption out of institutions – to our health care industries,” says Calley Means, an adviser to Kennedy and the Trump transition team, who spoke with NPR before Kennedy’s nomination. The ascendance of MAHA is a dizzying moment for scientists who’ve long pushed for more attention to lifestyle diseases — and agree reforms are desperately needed. At the same time, they’re deeply worried about Kennedy’s history of questioning scientific consensus on vaccines and his antagonism to mainstream m.